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The demons' weakening resolve shows as they fail to wound Skaar further. The Unfailing Pillar offers little mercy and continues to pound on his attacker with punishing blows. He glances at the soldiers watching from the sidelines, his cold eyes promising them the same bloody fate if they challenge him.
The demons bloody him but the Unfailing Pillar doesn't slow down a beat. He quickly turns his wrath and his fists on his remaining opponents.
Skaar growls in pain as the demon's fangs find their way into the meat of his shoulder. Before the beast can attack again, he smashes it with a huge fist.
The Unfailing Pillar quickly assumes his giant form. "Have it your way!"
"Keep your distance. I'll deal with this fool." "You there!" the big orc roars. "This is the only warning you're gunna get. Throw down your arms and make yourself scarce now while you still can under your own power. I've had just about enough of your Legion."
"This is the only way forward?" he asks the woman. "If so, I'll need to defeat this one. You might want to hide."
"You raise those critters? Consider me impressed" Skaar says in disbelief. "But you can thank me later. Can you get yourself someplace safe in the meantime? This 'Hungering Legion' isn't done with yet."
Skaar spits out a mouthful of blood and gives the beast a final kick before turning to address the fleeing woman. "You in one piece?" he rumbles.
The beast leaves the Unfailing Pillar bloodied but he manages to find his feet before it can launch him away. With a roar he slams into it again.
The remorhaz proves a canny opponent and manages to grab a hold of the Unfailing Pillar's thickly muscled forearm. Skaar wrenches the bloodied limb free and smashes into the beast again.
The beast snaps at the Unfailing Pillar but fails to get a good grip on his massive shoulder. The big orc wrenches free and releases a held breath, growing to a size more befitting his divine stature. Before the remorhaz can strike again, Skaar balls his huge fists together and smashes its maw with a massive hammerblow. He follows with a punishing headbutt.
Wary of the rising heat, Skaar's divine will shapes a ward against flames.
Finding the danger posed by the remorhaz to be a higher priority than his answers at the moment, Skaar charges into the fray to shield the woman from harm. He closes as much as he can before channeling a barrier large enough to shield her from harm. He eyes the rampaging remorhaz warily. "This won't hold it for long!" he growls. "Get clear and I'll deal with the beast."
Spotting the panicked woman, Skaar flags her down. "Hold on there! What's the rush? Are you headed to the front lines?"
"You can explain who the Hungering Legion is after we've beaten them back. Where's the fightin' the fiercest? I'll buy you whatever time you need to organize your forces."
"The ship with the fiery oil has been dealt with. Now will someone tell me what in the Nine Hells is goin' on here?" the Unfailing Pillar roars in frustration at the defends.
Satisfied with the outcome of his battle but still lacking for information, Skaar leaps from the deck of the ship onto the defenders’ battlements.
The Unfailing Pillar glances at the looming gatehouse and then back at his opponents. His coarse features rapidly flatten into a dark expression. ”I came to you looking for information and you greeted me with arrows and blades. Do not assume my open-handed blows are some kinda weakness. My wrath has sundered mountains. My might is like the ocean.” The big orc slams his fist into the deck of the ship. The crack of timber from the blow is accompanied by a crack of thunder and deluge of water that washes across the deck of the ship.
Skaar continues to evade the weapons and ropes of his attackers. "Submit and explain yourselves!"
The assorted blows are fended off or bounce off the Unfailing Pillar's divine wards and iron-like flesh. He slips free from the enchanted rope and quickly resumes his pummeling assault.
In a rush of motion, Skaar slams a shoulder into one of the warriors before spinning to smash his fist into another.
The Unfailing Pillar thunders toward the bridge looming over the approaching vessel. With a booming roar, he leaps off its edge. The big orc falls like a boulder at first but slows his fall with a burst of telekinetic force just strong enough to stick a graceful landing.
Skaar grunts in surprise and anger as one of the grazing javelins manages to draws blood. "That's the only warning you're gunna get."
Hoping for answers, Skaar approaches the vessel. He holds one massive hand up in a sign of parley. "Hold your blades!"
Not recognizing either of the banners, the Unfailing Pillar chooses to watch and learn for now. Amidst the sounds of battle, he listens for prayers or oaths that might help him understand who or what the two sides of the battle represented. "Do those banners mean anything to you?" he asks his priestess.
Skaar considers calling the wind to slow the coming vessel but first he tries to learn what he can about the battle he's wandered into.
With his supplies in hand, Skaar plies Kaer Maga's streets in search of a spellcaster willing to send himself and his priestess on their way north.
"I used to have a strong following in the North", he explains to Syl as they search. "We should keep an eye out of my shrines if this trip brings us up into the mountain peaks."
"Thanks Syl. We'll need to stop by the House of the Beast soon - to check in on 'em and make sure the scholar's got everything he needs." "In the meantime there's another site I need to visit, in the north. I got these furs for you. I can't have you freezin' to death!"
Skaar is glad to be someplace familiar but quickly goes back to work. "See if you can get in touch with the scholar we left in the House of the Beast. I wanna know if he's been able to learn anything else from the library we found underground. I'm gunna pick up supplies for our next trip."
After giving Ardathanatus a final nod farewell, Skaar clutches Freedom's Bond hanging from his neck and wills himself and Syl returned to his refuge in Kaer Maga.
Perhaps that is enough for now. Changing the world was never the role of the Unfailing Pillar - it is lending strength to mortals with the will to do it. Satisfied that the cult is in a better place for now, Skaar prepares to leave. He meets with Ardathanatus one final time before departing for the next leg of his quest. "I'm confident you'll succeed in workin' with your brothers and sisters to find the best path forward in forgin' a better world. Learn from the mistakes of your late elders. Any plan to a better world built on blood will always fail in the same way. Build a new world with strength and the strong will rise to the occasion. Remember what I showed you and you'll figure out the rest."
"Once we're done here, what do you think of heading north? Some cool weather would be a nice change", Skaar asks his priestess.
Skaar remains silent, content to see the cultists reconsider the path they are on. The crisis dealt with for now, he nods to Syl. "Let's try to find what this key goes to."
"It won't be easy and it won't be quick", Skaar explains. "But change, real change, rarely is." "But it get's easier - you've just gotta keep at it. And that's why you need each other. Every man and woman should be strong enough to stand against what we're facin' but when that strength fails, and it will, the men and women at your side will hold you up", the Unfailing Pillar explains with a nod at the assembled cultists. "And when that's not enough... I'll be there."
As he speaks, the Unfailing Pillar's divine spark lends power to his words.
"The world won't be beyond saving until the strong stop fighting for it", Skaar explains. "Your elders were not strong. They were not interested in saving this world. Are you? Are you willing to fight where they gave up so easily?"
"I challenge each of you to ask yourself, what brought you here? How did you come to be part of this cult? How did you come to call the elders your masters?" "I'd venture a guess that most of you are here because, like me, you want to see the world remade - better, stronger, kinder. The elders I killed built all this and taught you that the only way to rebuild the world was Groetus's way, with flames and death. I challenge that the only way to truly accomplish that isn't with death but with sweat and toil - that this world can't be rebuilt on a pile of ashes. It's gotta be done piece by piece by hands that are willin' to go the distance."
"Your elders are dead, killed by my own hands", Skaar bellows in his impossibly deep voice before holding up his thickly calloused bloody knuckles. "You can join 'em or, if you've got any sense, you'll hear me out."
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